ANC accused of escaping accountability for apartheid-era attacks

The African National Congress (ANC) and civil society group AfriForum have gotten into a heated back and forth over expanding the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry’s scope.

AfriForum wants it to include investigating the reasons for delays in prosecutions of crimes committed by ANC leaders during apartheid who did not receive amnesty.

The ANC has since alleged that AfriForum is spreading “racist propaganda aimed at sanitising apartheid” and the organisation must “stop provoking racial divisions and defending apartheid criminals.”

It added that “the fight for freedom was not terror, it was justice.”

Chaired by Judge Sisi Khampepe, the commission was set up to investigate allegations that efforts were made to obstruct the investigation and prosecution of crimes from the apartheid era, as identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Even though the TRC had handed over a list of around 300 cases to the NPA with the recommendation that they be investigated further, with a view to prosecute, virtually all of these cases have been abandoned.

The cases involved gross human rights violations such as torture, murder, and enforced disappearance, in which amnesty was either denied or not applied for.

Pressure from the families some of the deceased, including the Cradock-4, to obtain answers to the causes of the delay in the investigation and prosecution of crimes resulted in a 2024 Constitutional Court ruling.

It ordered the government to address delays in TRC case handling, resulting in the establishment of the Commission as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on May 29, 2025

AfriForum submitted to the commission a request for its investigation to include “political interference that resulted in senior ANC leaders who did not receive amnesty not being prosecuted for terror attacks during the apartheid era.”

The organisation said that its submission stemmed from assisting one of its members, Dirk van Eck, in 2007.

Van Eck’s wife, Kobie, and two of his children, Nasie (2) and Nelmari (8), died in an ANC landmine attack in December 1985 alongside three other civilians, Marie de Nysschen and two children Kobus (3) and Carla (9).

Dirk and his 18-month-old son were also injured in the explosion.

AfriForum, through its CEO Kallie Kriel, argued that while the TRC found the ANC guilty of human rights violations and the party admitted responsibility for the landmine attack under “Operation Cetshwayo,” its senior leadership was never prosecuted.

Kriel said they had previously called for the past to be put to rest “in the spirit of reconciliation”, but insisted that if prosecutions continue, they should also include ANC leaders who sanctioned attacks and did not receive amnesty.

He criticised the National Prosecuting Authority for targeting former security force members while “ignoring ANC crimes”, calling for either full closure or equal accountability before the law.

During the TRC, over 1,000 ANC members applied for amnesty; many were granted for politically motivated acts, but the TRC stressed accountability for disproportionate or cruel actions.

The ANC argued that its actions were defensive against a brutal regime. The TRC acknowledged this but maintained that no group was above scrutiny.

Fight for freedom was not terror, it was justice – ANC

On 13 October, the ANC issued a statement calling AfriForum’s submission a “racist and desperate attempt to rewrite history and equate the liberation struggle with the crimes of apartheid.”

The ANC called AfriForum’s statements “propaganda designed to sanitise apartheid and undermine our liberation struggle and democracy.”

The party emphasised that apartheid was not a form of governance but “a crime against humanity,” as declared by the United Nations and the international community.

It said the liberation struggle led by the ANC was “a moral and legitimate fight for freedom, equality, and human dignity,” and called AfriForum’s rhetoric “nostalgic” for white supremacy.

The party further warned AfriForum to “stop provoking racial divisions and defending apartheid criminals.”

It added that South Africa’s democracy “was not built on white supremacist forgiveness, but on black sacrifice and an unshakable love for humanity.”

The ANC said people must “reject AfriForum’s racist revisionism,” insisting that “the fight for freedom was not terror, it was justice; and it shall never be rewritten by racists.”

In response to the statement by the ANC, Kriel said that “the murder of innocent children such as Nasie van Eck (2) and Nelmari van Eck (8) in a landmine attack can never be portrayed as justice in action.”

“It was an act of terror that contravened Protocol I of the Geneva Convention, despite the fact that the ANC signed the protocol in 1980. To defend the murder of children to justify a false portrayal of AfriForum is immoral.”

He said that the ANC “has proven itself to be an immoral and corrupt organisation,” pointing to leaders implicated in the Zondo Commission.